More Than Forty of the ‘Best New Chefs’ 2013 Awardees and Alumni Pledge to Protect Seals

FOOD & WINE Magazine

Suzanne Goin, 1999 FOOD & WINE Best New Chef awardee, awaits the day when Canada's commercial seal hunt is over. The HSUS

The Humane Society of the United States congratulates the 42 HSUS’s Chefs for Seals participants who are being honored by FOOD & WINE Magazine. Chefs for Seals participants have joined The HSUS’s Protect Seals campaign to end Canada’s commercial seal slaughter.

Suzanne Goin, who is the James Beard award-winning executive chef at a.o.c., Lucques and Tavern in Los Angeles and 1999 FOOD & WINE Best New Chef awardee, said: “I look forward to celebrating the day when Canada’s commercial seal hunt is a thing of the past and am honored to find myself in the company of so many wonderful chefs who feel the same way.

Each year for the past 25 years, FOOD & WINE has selected ten up-and-coming chefs for praise as the year’s Best New Chefs. As part of its year-long celebration of this milestone, FOOD & WINE hosted a 25th anniversary party at the Mandarin Oriental in New York this weekend. Chefs Jonathan Benno, Terrance Brennan, Scott Conant, Linton Hopkins and Alex Stupak were among the Protect Seals chefs who were at the event. Details about them and the other Best New Chefs who are part of Chefs for Seals can be found below.

John Grandy, wildlife advisor to the CEO of The HSUS, said: “As the FOOD & WINE Best New Chef awardees have moved on to spectacular culinary heights, it is wonderful to see that so many of them are weaving a core commitment to compassion into their work. We are enormously grateful that so many these award-winning chefs are part of The HSUS’s Protect Seals campaign. Congratulations and many thanks.”

Chefs who join The HSUS’s Protect Seals Campaign pledge not to purchase all Canadian seafood or seafood from sealing provinces until Canada’s commercial seal slaughter ends. By shifting their seafood purchasing policies away from Canada, these chefs are giving Canada’s fishing industry a clear message—it is not acceptable for fishermen in Canada to club and shoot hundreds of thousands of seal pups in a reckless mass slaughter that takes place every year off Canada’s east coast.

A complete list of restaurants participating in the Protect Seals campaign can be found at humanesociety.org/protectseals. A smartphone app, Protect Seals, allows individuals to locate seal-friendly businesses that have signed the Protect Seals pledge. The seal app is available for free on iPhone and Android phones at humanesociety.org/sealapp.

HSUS’s Chefs for Seals members who have been named Best New Chef:

Chef

Restaurant

Year Honored

Cathal Armstrong

Restaurant Eve, Majestic, Eamonn's (VA)

F&W Best New Chef 2006

Jonathan Benno

Lincoln Ristorante (NY)

F&W Best New Chef 2006

Danny Bowien

Mission Chinese Food (CA, NY)

F&W Best New Chef 2013

Terrance Brennan

Picholine, Artisanal Fromagerie (NY)

F&W Best New Chef 1995

Josiah Citrin

Melisse (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 1997

Scott Conant

Scarpetta Restaurants, Conant Hospitality Group

F&W Best New Chef 2004

Celestino Drago

Drago Centro, Drago, Enoteca, Il Pastaio (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 1993

Mary Dumont

Harvest (MA)

F&W Best New Chef 2006

Kelly English

Restaurant Iris (TN)

F&W Best New Chef 2009

Colby Garrelts

Bluestem, Rye KC (MO)

F&W Best New Chef 2005

Suzanne Goin

Luques, A.O.C., Larder, Tavern (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 1999

Gerald Hirigoyen

Piperade (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 1994

Michael Hudman

Hog & Hominy (TN)

F&W Best New Chef 2013

Linton Hopkins

Restaurant Eugene, Holman & Finch (GA)

F&W Best New Chef 2009

Stephanie Izard

The Girl & The Goat, A Little Goat (IL)

F&W Best New Chef 2011

J Joho

Everest (IL)

F&W Best New Chef 1989

Christopher Kostow

The Restaurant At Meadowood (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 2009

Matthew Lake

Alamexo (UT)

F&W Best New Chef 1996

Raphael Lunetta

Jiraffe (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 1997

Jamie Malone

Sea Change at the Guthrie Theater (MN)

F&W Best New Chef 2013

David Myers

Comme Ça (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 2003

George Mendes

Aldea (NY)

F&W Best New Chef 2011

Karen Nicolas

Citron & Rose (PA)

F&W Best New Chef 2012

Nancy Oakes

Boulevard, Prospect (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 1993

Pascal Oudin

Pascal's on Ponce (FL)

F&W Best New Chef 1995

Mark Peel

formerly of Campanile (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 1990

Daniel Patterson

Coi Restaurant (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 1997

Gabriel Rucker

Le Pigeon (OR)

F&W Best New Chef 2007

Jonathan Sawyer

The Greenhouse Tavern (OH)

F&W Best New Chef 2010

Nancy Silverton

Osteria Mozza, Spacca (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 2000

Joshua Skenes

Saison (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 2011

Susan Spicer

Bayona, Mondo (LA)

F&W Best New Chef 1989

Ethan Stowell

Staple & Fancy, Tavolata, + others (WA)

F&W Best New Chef 2008

Alex Stupak

Empellon Taqueria, Empellon Cocina (NY)

F&W Best New Chef 2013

Allen Susser

Chef Allen Consulting (FL)

F&W Best New Chef 1991

Michael Symon

Lola Bistro, Lolita, B Spot Burgers, Roast (OH)

F&W Best New Chef 1998

Andy Ticer

Hog & Hominy (TN)

F&W Best New Chef 2013

Jason Vincent

Nightwood (IL)

F&W Best New Chef 2013

Paul Virant

Vie, Perennial Virant (IL)

F&W Best New Chef 2007

Michael Voltaggio

Ink (CA)

F&W Best New Chef 2013

Sue Zemanick

Gautreau's (LA)

F&W Best New Chef 2008

Eric Ziebold

CityZen (DC);

F&W Best New Chef 2005

Facts

There are several options for participation in the Protect Seals Boycott. Some participants focus their efforts on Canadian snow crab (the mail seafood product of Canada’s sealing provinces), some discontinue sale of all seafood from sealing provinces, and others discontinue sale of all Canadian seafood.

Ninety-seven percent of the seals killed are defenseless pups younger than 3 months old. The seals are killed primarily for their fur, which is exported for use in fashion markets.

Canada's commercial seal hunt is one of the largest slaughters of marine mammals on Earth, with nearly 1 million seals killed in the past five years alone.

Veterinary experts say Canada's commercial seal hunt is inherently inhumane because of the environment in which it operates and the speed at which the killing occurs.

The majority of income for commercial sealers comes not from killing seals but from seafood including crab, shrimp and lobster. In Newfoundland, where more than 90 percent of sealers live, income from the seal hunt accounts for less than one half of one percent of the province's economy. Less than one percent of Newfoundlanders participate in the seal hunt.

Canadian government representatives have said the only way the commercial seal hunt can be ended is if the fishing industry demands it.

To give the Canadian fishing industry an incentive to act, The HSUS launched the Protect Seals boycott of Canadian seafood in 2005.

Membership

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions to The Humane Society of the United States are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. The HSUS's tax identification number is 53-0225390.